The Value of Leaving Some Forage in Pasture

“Waste not, Want Not,” right? It’s what we learned when we were kids, and we’ve probably used it to our advantage in lots of cases. But when it comes to forage in pasture, we may want to look at this old adage in a different way. If you take all your forage, because you don’t want to waste it, what you’re actually wasting is all the rain that falls on your pasture.

In this NRCS Science of Soil Health video, JB Daniel points out that the single greatest threat to annual forage production is a lack of soil moisture. Then he uses a rainfall simulator and two pasture samples, one from a continuously grazed pasture and one from a well managed pasture to show how well-managed pasture helps hold water in the soil. Keeping this video in mind will help you when you’re someone tells “But you’ve wasted all that grass!”

About the author

Kathy worked with the Bureau of Land Management for 12 years before founding Livestock for Landscapes in 2004. Her twelve years at the agency allowed her to pursue her goal of helping communities find ways to live profitably AND sustainably in their environment. She has been researching and working with livestock as a land management tool for over a decade. When she's not helping farmers, ranchers and land managers on-site, she writes articles, and books, and edits videos to help others turn their livestock into landscape managers.